Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 752: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if it is his intention to sign the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; if not, the reason for not signing; his plans for the signing of the optional protocol in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33562/09]

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 753: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the Government will sign the optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights when it opened for signature on 24 September 2009; if not, the reason for same; if there are plans for signing the optional protocol in the future; if the Government sign the optional protocol, if it will also ratify it on the same day; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34542/09]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 752 and 753 together.

As I have already indicated in response to a number of Parliamentary Questions answered on 16 and 23 September, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) was ratified by Ireland on 8 December 1989.

The Optional Protocol to this International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR) will, when it comes into force, set up a mechanism that will make it possible for individuals or groups of individuals to submit a complaint to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in regard to violations of their economic, social and cultural rights by a State Party to that Protocol. It does not create any new substantive rights.

Discussions on the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR took place in a Working Group which held its first session in 2004. In June 2006, the UN Human Rights Council mandated the Working Group to negotiate the text of an Optional Protocol, and requested the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group to prepare a draft to serve as the basis for negotiations.

Following consideration by the UN Human Rights Council, the text of the Optional Protocol was presented last year to the UN General Assembly, which adopted the text by consensus on 10 December 2008, the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Officials of this Department were actively engaged at all stages of negotiation on the Optional Protocol, in consultation with other relevant Government Departments, our EU partners and other UN member States.

Inter-Departmental consultations on the possibility of Ireland's signature and ratification of the Optional Protocol are continuing, with this Department playing a co-ordination role. As this process has not yet been completed, Ireland was not in a position to sign the Optional Protocol when it opened for signature in New York on 24 September.

Seven States parties signed the Optional Protocol at the opening ceremony. Since then, a further 22 States have signed. I arranged for Ireland to be represented at the opening ceremony, even though we were not in a position to sign. No State has yet ratified the Optional Protocol. The Optional Protocol can only come into force three months after the deposit with the UN Secretary-General of the tenth instrument of ratification or accession.

I can assure the Deputy that I will make every effort to ensure that the consideration of Ireland's signature and ratification by relevant Government Departments is completed as quickly as possible.